Any forward on that list would be an upgrade. Any two of them would be ideal. I have no idea how to pull it off without trading away multiple first round picks.

I got a ranch in downtown Dallas/I buy diamonds by the ton/Chase cuties in my Cadillac/Drill oil wells just for fun/But when it comes to boots, I need a deal/That will fit me right, toe to heel/So I get my boots at Western Warehouse.

Obviously, Panarin or Stone would be a massive improvement, but I wonder if Puljujarvi could be had for cheap with the idea that a change of scenery may help. He hasn't exactly been living up to the pedigree in Edmonton.

ScubaSteve wrote:Why in the world would you add to this thing? Sell Spezza, salvage whatever you can value-wise for Honka and Val, and you're not any worse off than where you are now.

I hate to agree, but I do.

Panarin would help. Duchene I'm afraid is a dick. Both would cost more than they are worth. Panarin isn't gonna stay and Duchene we wouldn't want to stay. Stone is staying in Ottawa. I do like Gus Nyquist, but he is more of what we already have. Maybe next year.

ScubaSteve wrote:Why in the world would you add to this thing? Sell Spezza, salvage whatever you can value-wise for Honka and Val, and you're not any worse off than where you are now.

Because I'll take any playoff hockey at this point even if it doesn't last very long.

It's not like next season looks any brighter with Benn/Seguin a year older, Spezza gone, and yet another year of hoping a bunch of young guys who can't do *poo poo* in the NHL finally figure it out. With the future looking putrid, I just say do what they can to get into the playoffs now for the sake of looking like they're trying to win.

I got a ranch in downtown Dallas/I buy diamonds by the ton/Chase cuties in my Cadillac/Drill oil wells just for fun/But when it comes to boots, I need a deal/That will fit me right, toe to heel/So I get my boots at Western Warehouse.

ScubaSteve wrote:Why in the world would you add to this thing? Sell Spezza, salvage whatever you can value-wise for Honka and Val, and you're not any worse off than where you are now.

I hate to agree, but I do.

Panarin would help. Duchene I'm afraid is a dick. Both would cost more than they are worth. Panarin isn't gonna stay and Duchene we wouldn't want to stay. Stone is staying in Ottawa. I do like Gus Nyquist, but he is more of what we already have. Maybe next year.

I would think that any deal for Duchene or Panarin would be heavily conditioned on their willingness to sign here. I don't care if Duchene's hobby is kicking puppies if he can be a solid second-line center.

ScubaSteve wrote:Why in the world would you add to this thing? Sell Spezza, salvage whatever you can value-wise for Honka and Val, and you're not any worse off than where you are now.

Because I'll take any playoff hockey at this point even if it doesn't last very long.

It's not like next season looks any brighter with Benn/Seguin a year older, Spezza gone, and yet another year of hoping a bunch of young guys who can't do *poo poo* in the NHL finally figure it out. With the future looking putrid, I just say do what they can to get into the playoffs now for the sake of looking like they're trying to win.

That's probably the route they'll go, since Nill needs to make the playoffs this year to save his job. And I agree, since we suck at drafting anyway, who cares if we give up some assets to get immediate help. But unless you're adding both Panarin and Duchene or something crazy like that, I don't see any way this team gets out of the first round.

I'm not thrilled with any of those really except Stone. However, he sounds like he'd prefer to stay in Ottawa, however, that could just be lip service.

Again, we'd have to salary dump the ship out of some players to be able to do any trade for any decent player. I feel like at best we can hope for a "change of scenery" style trade where we swap one or two mediocre players for some other slightly less mediocre player that has potential.

I think Nill is going to pull out all the stops to save his job. All this safe "not mortgaging the future" nonsense is probably going to go right out the window since he will be fired if we don't have a decent playoff run this year.

~Marriage is like putting your hand into a bag of snakes in the hope of pulling out an eel.

Pass on Duchene. He's got to be the single streakiest scorer in the NHL. 14 points in 6 games one week, then disappears for a month. Basically a younger, faster version of what we have already with Spezza.

Simmonds’ name has been surfacing in trade rumblings lately, including when Darren Dreger weighed in on the matter during Tuesday’s edition of TSN’s Insider Trading. Dreger and others indicate that Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher is still mulling over options, with at least some possibility for Philly to simply re-sign the 30-year-old power-play whiz.

The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun reports (sub required) that Simmonds’ reps are expected to increase pressure on Fletcher to make a decision soon (maybe by the end of the week), and while that might lead to some sweaty palms, it’s likely for the best overall.

In fact, it could end up being a situation where everyone – the Flyers, Simmonds, and a potential new team – wins.

The point, ultimately, is that this team is a little more willing to pull the chute on players who, while they provide quality on some level, may be more highly valued by other organizations. You can say what you want about Namestnikov, Hajek, Howden, Drouin (who, by the way, demanded a trade), and all the rest. The Lightning didn’t miss on those picks because they’re all NHLers. But they aren’t as valuable as the collective quality of the players they used them to acquire. Moreover, it’s easier to give up on just-okay first-rounders from 2014 if you also got Brayden Point in the third round, Nikita Kucherov in the second, or Ondrej Palat in the seventh.

You don’t need to continually onboard draftees if you’re hitting as many home runs as the Lightning have in the last seven or eight drafts. Of Tampa’s current points leaders, literally almost everyone on the current roster fall into one of three categories: Drafted (Kucherov, Point, Stamkos, Hedman, Killorn, Joseph, Cirelli, Palat, Erne, Paquette, Cernak, Vasilevskiy), traded for (Miller, McDonagh, Sergachev, Callahan, Coburn), or signed as a free agent out of junior (Johnson, Gourde).

Put another way, this is an organization so good at player evaluation that the only current contributors on the team signed via free agency are Anton Stralman (on a bargain deal after the Rangers let him walk) and Dan Girardi (bad move but only short-term and relatively low-cost).

It's almost not fair. They are so good at drafting and trading that they have too many good players. Of course, I bet a big reason why their trades work out so well is other teams want to acquire Tampa's picks thinking they can get some of that Tampa magic, so teams are overpaying Tampa.

It must be nice.

I got a ranch in downtown Dallas/I buy diamonds by the ton/Chase cuties in my Cadillac/Drill oil wells just for fun/But when it comes to boots, I need a deal/That will fit me right, toe to heel/So I get my boots at Western Warehouse.

ToddM wrote:And yet they still have zero Cups to show for it. And missed the playoffs entirely two seasons ago.

That's... amazing.

Yes, they are amazing. In a salary cap league striving for parity, they've won more playoff rounds in the past four seasons than the Stars have in the past 18 years. They have been to the conference finals three of the past four seasons. That is amazing. If your'e not jealous of that... well... enjoy hoping Roope *fargin'* Hintz becomes a superstar.

I got a ranch in downtown Dallas/I buy diamonds by the ton/Chase cuties in my Cadillac/Drill oil wells just for fun/But when it comes to boots, I need a deal/That will fit me right, toe to heel/So I get my boots at Western Warehouse.

ToddM wrote:I am jealous. But it's also surprising that, despite all that success and the league's best drafting and personnel decisions, they still have yet to win anything.

That probably changes this season.

Probably.

I think my bigger problem is characterizing three conference finals and one Cup finals appearance as not winning anything.

I got a ranch in downtown Dallas/I buy diamonds by the ton/Chase cuties in my Cadillac/Drill oil wells just for fun/But when it comes to boots, I need a deal/That will fit me right, toe to heel/So I get my boots at Western Warehouse.